Original title............................. English title.............................. Director.................................... Production date.......................Runtime................................... Country.................................... Filming location........................Genre....................................... Color........................................ Language................................ Subtitles................................... Others subtitles........................Shot format............................. Projection format..................... Aspect ratio............................. Audio.......................................

MONSIEUR PIGEONMonsieur PigeonAntonio Prata20.05.201957 minSwitzerlandParisDocumentaryColorItalian/FrenchEnglishItalianDigitalDcp, BD16:9Stereo

Monsieur Pigeon

Short synopsisGiuseppe lives in his van in the heart of Paris and has long since stopped communicating with his fellow men. His time, his physical space as well as his mental space are dedicated to the birds that inhabit the cities, abused animals that the old man defends and feeds, suffering threats and attacks.

Long synopsisGiuseppe lives in a van in the heart of Paris, a few meters from the Beaubourg. He has long since stopped communicating with men and his life is barely affected by the excited pace of the thousands of people who cross the Marais every day. His time, his resources, his physical as well as mental space are dedicated to pigeons, the birds that inhabit the cities, abused animals that the old man defends and feeds suffering daily threats and attacks. Pigeons were considered reliable messengers in the past, but are now the most hated animals by man. In a Paris wounded by the terrorist attacks, people try to react as they can to fear and loss without losing their soul. Giuseppe, in his microcosm, immersed in his poetics, observes what surrounds him, convinced that the world has already lost its soul. A metropolitan fairy tale about loneliness and the ruins of a society in which every gesture of rebellion seems to dissolve into indifference.

Director statementFor 60 years Giuseppe lived an ordinary life. He studied, had a family and worked in a bank. He knows the world around him well and today is deeply disappointed.So he decided to rebel against that system, against the wickedness of people who judge without knowing because they observe reality with superficiality and distraction, often hiding in their soul resentment, aggression and intolerance.In the Paris Marais they never wanted to build a pigeon house. So the pigeons have no home; they roam the city in search of a place to stay, trying to escape the dangers caused by human hatred. Despite being forbidden, Giuseppe feeds them daily and protects them because they are helpless. I thought of transforming this real condition into a sort of metropolitan parable using the language of the documentary and the extreme intimacy between him and the pigeons, with the intention of highlighting the attitude of a humanity that has lost some fundamental principles of coexistence and tolerance. In a metaphorical narrative path, and in the midst of a general loss caused by the terrorist attacks that exploded during the days of shooting, the pigeons and Giuseppe represent for me that part of society that is marginalized and rejected for the simple reason of having chosen not to share the hostility of man.

CrewProducer...................................... Co-producer................................Writers.......................................... Director........................................ Script........................................... Organization................................Director of photography...............Sound........................................... Film editing................................... Sound editing............................... Sound mixer................................. Musics..........................................Grading e color............................

Director’s bioBorn in 1972 in Zurich, Switzerland Antonio grows up between the Italian regions of Umbria and Abruzzo, he continued the Italian high school in Zürich until he moves to Lugano, in 1995, to study cinema. In 2007 he graduated with the film “The rest of a story”, best short movie at Doclisboa, a special mention at Turin Film Festival and First steps at Visions du Réel in Nyon.In 2009 realized the short “Winter is Longer”, shot in a drug rehab center.

In 2011, when his land of origin, Abruzzo, was upset by the earthquake, he decides to realize “Terradentro”, in competition at the Turin Film Festival and at the Solothurn Film Days.

For 15 years was art director and theatre manager in Lugano. Since 2016 he is the director of the Human Rights Film Festival Lugano, and since 2018 he is the art director of the Cinema Otello in Ascona (Switzerland).

Tiziana Soudani – Amka FilmsSilvana Bezzola - RSI Radiotelevisione SvizzeraAntonio Prata e Lara FremderAntonio PrataAntonio Prata e Nevia ElezovicNevia ElezovicGiorgio CarellaStefano MosimanVeronica ScottiFabio Meschiari per DigilabFabio Meschiari per DigilabMachinefabriek, Olivier Messiaen, Sains Saens, Luca FoisMarco Sgorbati per Terratrema

Filmography & festivalsIl resto di una storia – The rest of a story | Switzerland | 2007 | 34 minTorino Film Festival, Torino, 2007 Special MentionVisions du Reel . Nyon, 2008 First StepsDoclisboa, Lisboa – 2008 Best International short filmFestival del Documentario d’Abruzzo Emilio Lopez, Pescara – 2008 Jury Special MentionItaliani indipendenti, Trento – 2009Ares Film and Media Festival, 2012 – Siracusa Signes de Nuit, 2012 – Paris Belgrade International Flm Festival Reset, 2012 – Beograd

L’inverno è più lungo – Winter is longer | Switzerland | 2010 | 27 min

Terradentro | Switzerland, Italy | 2013 | 25 minTorino Film Festival, Torino, 2013Festival del Documentario d’Abruzzo Emilio Lopez, Pescara – 2013Ares Film and Media Festival, Siracusa - 2013 50 Solothurner Film-Tage, Solothurn 2014